Do you remember when you first fell in love with Ferrari?

1978- I was a kid parking cars at a catering hall... Guy pulls up in a 308 GT4- Yellow boxer paint- Black suede (Or whatever that stuff is) interior... Throws me the keys- warns me to "Keep it where i can see it... and walks into the place without even glancing back.

That 22 foot drive to a secure parking spot was absolutely terrifying. Stuff clutch, stiff gated shifter- i recall noticing the mileage was 1977 miles- and it was 1978.. so i figured if we took it even around the block he'd know.

Needless to say we (Me and the other four car-crazy parking attendants) spent the next three hours just soaking up every inch of this car- read the owners manual, got my Nikon out of my car and took some pictures on Tri-X. Of course each one of us took turns posing with the keys- Wish i could find those negs....

At the time I did not even realize that this car was different than a 308 GTB- it seems so low, so exotic, so high strung- Just from another planet. Now 33 years later I own that exact car. (Not the same chassis i think, but identical in every other respect)

The next Ferrari i got to see up close was a brand new 1980 400i 5-Speed which arrived in the States with no car stereo- I worked in a car stereo store at the time So i got to install a Pioneer unit- Car had factory speakers which we replaced with kenwood units- had never seen a door panel so beautifully upholstered... The car had 26 miles on it and was White with cream interior- At the time the fact that a Ferrari- a FERRARI existed that was designed for an executive with a family seemed SO decadent to me- far more decadent that a sports car- everybody understands those- but a 12 cylinder notchback coupe from FERARRI... Just shocking. I Got one of those as well.

The very next day a Cardiologiest came by in a red 308 GTs that we put all manner of ADS stuff in, speakers, power plate amps- a custom enclosure with 6 1/2" ADS subs-

Been in a few hundred Fcars since those days... nothing matches that first time sitting in that Gt4 for sheer adrenaline.... Sitting in my newly acquired Gt4 gives me the kind of goosebumpy teenage feeling all over again.

 

Even in pictures it still works it's magic on me.

That and the shape of a beautiful woman are about the only things left that do that.

 

Different continent, roughly the same time frame......

My folks lived just off the Mississippi River in S Mpls. Jerry Hanson and crew, a Pro racer at the time, had a shop down the road a bit and used to test drive the cars down the Pkwy in front of my folks house.

One day a SB Cobra came thundering down the road, plenty loud to catch a young guys attention and create a lust..... UNTIL the 250TR following it opened up and pulled out for the pass. That was it, game over, Detroit iron was a means to an end from that day forward. The 12 cylinders of that 250TR at full song redline, the scream.... The racket the Cobra made amounted to nothing but background noise. Lust is one thing, Ferrari became a requirement for me that day, I remember it like it was yesterday.

 

I remember hearing a valet say to another " the golden rule is if a Ferrari comes it goes off the lot" meaning you get to thrash on it 'round the back. That has stuck in my brain ever since and because of that i never left my 308 with a valet.

It's funny how that first impression is often the most meaningful. Seems to be a common theme in everyone's stories. It's not something you learn to love it's true love at first sight and blindsides you when you don't expect it.

 

We must be long lost brothers....

I'll admit, there is one thing I like to hear more than the Ferrari V12 racing motors at full song. When we go historic racing it doesn't matter where I am or what I'm working on or what I'm doing or who I'm talking to... if there is 80's Alfa Romeo F1 car or Ligier F1 with the Alfa V12 F1 motor, I work my way to the hot pit, abuse my credentials and go out to the track wall to hear those cars go by. Its Auditory, Cerebral and Visceral excitement... hair on the back of my neck stands up and I am in love every time the car goes by. I don't know what it is... valve cant, cam overlap/duration, exhaust merge, block harmonics??? but something about those motors is special. But most Alfa Romeo road cars do little for me. Its just the F1 motor. Its a sickness.... I hope there is no cure.

Rick

 

I have a copy of the UK edition of Nick Mason's "Into the Red" that came with the CD of sounds from his collection. I love Ferrari in every single way, but the short stints where they get that BRM running are the most incredible collection of engineering symphonies I've ever heard. Hearing it at full song for just a few seconds (before it coughed into silence again) is spine-tingling. I would love to hear it in person someday. Nothing else comes close, sorry Enzo, but hey the Ferraris actually run!

 

At my place we specifically pulled all the fancy cars into an arc right in front of the place- it was a grass knoll, basically. Used to get all sorts of new Porsches but the Ferrari was a jaw dropping event- I mean who takes a GT4 to a wedding?

 

1 WORD.... MAGNUM. And 30 years later, I own one.

 

I think it was when I 1st saw Gumball Rally at a drive in theatre in my Fiat 850, I was so hyped I dam near decapitated us leaving the theatre when I drove under an unseen chain across the road.

The sound of the Daytona in NYC canyons is awesome, the Ford V8 doesn't even come close.


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It was 1973 and my neighbor's son had just purchased a red 246 GTS and stopped by to visit his dad. I had only seen pictures of a 246. But when I saw it parked in the drive way, it was love at first sight.

Always thought about the 246. But I realized it was out of my price range.

Over the years I purchased Porsche cars. Jacksonville is a Porsche city, home of Brumos Porsche. Then finally I decided now was the time to buy a 308.



CK

 

OMG its a good thing that none of the wife's and/or girlfriends are reading this thread........if they did we all would be in the dog house........

 

One sentence in CAR - British car magazine - around 1988, on a road test of the F40 (utter lust), has been tattood in my mind:

"It exploded open a 400 yard gap on a tail-crawling GTI. Holy Enzo!!!"

These EXACT words. Still gives me goose pimples...

 

LOL

We're all just little boys, and we'll always be. They'd better come to terms with that...

 

It's nice to see folks admit to the Magnum connection. I rented a 78 GTS in HI for 3 days in the early 80's and loved the "Hey Magnum" comments I got driving around Oahu. I still do and don't understand the view that it's somehow insulting. I frankly see that (anti-Magnum) as the personification of Ferrari snobbery.

 

I've known Ferrari's since i was a kid, but when I first saw the article about the 288GTO in 1984 (or could be '83), that's what did it for me.

 

My parents bought us all a subscription to a magazine to encourage us to read. My oldest brother got Sports Illustrated, middle brother got Popular Science. I got Road and Track.

The Orthopedic Surgeon down the street went through cars like water. He seldom kept one 6 months, and a new one in his driveway wasn't unusual. Until the day he came home in a blue '77 308 GTB. I knew instantly what it was, and ran out of my house down the block to see it. I couldn't believe it. A FERRARI on my street! I was so excited I don't think I was breathing. I was not yet 16. He came out of the house carrying the trash and saw me drooling. He asked if I wanted a ride. Of course I did. He took me around the block and I will never forget that 1/2 mile ride. The local Jr. High had just let out and every kid was staring. That was ME in the car. As we got on the main road, he told me "the problem with this car is that you have to be doing about 100 to put it in 4th gear". I believed him of course. I'd been fascinated with Ferrari's before, but never expected to see one. I was hooked.

I started saving for it when I was 18 with the goal of buying it for my 35th birthday. There was never a question that it would be a 308, though I did move up to QV on my want list. I missed the 35 goal, but by choice. I postponed it until 40, and picked it up the day after my birthday and drove it 1700 miles home. That was almost 10 years ago. And it's not a 308. But it's close.

 

I can relate to that one...it was 1986, 7th grade class trip to Philadelphia, a stop at 6 Flags amusement park. On our way back to the bus a bunch of kids who were walking ahead of us, knowing I was a car guy, came running back saying "there's a Ferrari in the parking lot!" I didn't even get excited, I was like, naaahhh, probably a corvette, I didn't even speed up...

...and there it was, a 308 GTS QV! It looked brand-new (probably was), red with tan leather, just stunning. I remember being dumbstruck finally seeing THE car with the distinctive scoop along the doors into the rear fenders - it blew me away, that such a car I had seen only in photos actually existed, and I was in its presence.

I've done all sorts of dumb things to be around them ever since. Don't own one yet - having fun with my 911, though - but someday...

Audi

 

I saw this poster and had to have it. Never understood how they put the 928 in there. The first time I saw a 308 in action I wouldn't settle for anything else. When I drove it for the first time I got out of the car and my hands were shaking.

Third gear on the country roads by my house never fails to get the heart rate going.

Although my wife doesn't share my love for Ferrari's she completely understands and loves taking drives. She even let me drive it on our wedding day.

We recently saw a 599 on the road and while driving I completely broke my neck trying to get a better look at it. She laughed and said that she's never seen me react that way to a woman on the street.
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I was a around Rolls Royce and Bentleys all my life, then dad brought home a Yellow over black GT4! The rest as they say was history.

 

My story is a bit different. Ferrari has always been in my mental radar as with most people in the world. (They say that Ferrari is the 2nd most recognized brand on the planet after Coke)

My intense passion for Ferrari started with my quest to acquire the most highly detailed model car I could find. I had a completed Pocher Ferrari F40 which was very nice and impressive. However, I stumbled onto the Autograph F40 Transformation kits (2000.00 upgrades for a 1000.00 model kit) and was sold!. I dismantled the existing model and began working on the kit. I'm a year into the construction and that is the halfway point.

http://scaleautoworks.com/f40transkitphotos.htm for details on the kit.

It was during my internet research for pictures for reference, that I kept running into Ebay adds for Ferrari's that seemed downright affordable to "acquire" though still expensive to maintain. I kept an eye on Mondials and found one a two hour drive away for a good price. It was in receivership from a financial fraud criminal so the price was negotiable. Knocked about 5 grand off the asking price with some time pressure and cash on hand and found it to be near mint condition. In fact, it was featured in Forza magazine a few years ago as an example of a mint Mondial.

I enjoy the reactions of friends and people on the road to the car. However, all the ego stuff eventually wears off and it settles down a relationship between a person and the car. It's a downright spiritual thing. Ferrari to me represents the best of what humanity has to offer. It is about raising the bar, quality, speed and boldness and sheer beauty.

I think Enzo would be so proud of us who are passionate about our cars and doing or supervising so much of our own work. He would consider us to be true Ferrari owners. Not to dis the super rich who just have them serviced and trade them out, but I have run into too many of them who do not appreciate their Ferrari near as much as we do. It doesn't get any more passionate than what I see here in this forum. Enzo would be pleased.

Cheers
Dave

 

I share your passion, but the awful truth is Enzo would be laughing his ass off because we love these cars so much. He had almost disdane for people who bought the cars. Some of the people who came to the factory and orderd special cars he liked, but mostly he liked the Money so he could go racing, and even then he did not really like the cars so much as his name being identified as a winner. in the 50's & 60's old racing cars were scrapped as junk, no sentimentality at all for cars that were winners - Sharknose prime example. For Enzo there were no "true" Ferrari owners, there were just the brave bravado drivers, and then the rest of the wanna be's. Enzo looked up to guys who were hard charging, womanizing, hard playing men, who liked to take risks all the time. When he sold off the production cars to Fiat, he rarely paid any attention. F-40 ranks up there as he knew it would be the last made while he was alive, and he liked getting all the $$$ for a limited edition car.... smiling to the last, all the way to the bank.

 

this would have to be August 1965, when I took deliver of my Pontiac GTO. later that week a friend told me that this was the logo of the Ferrari GTO which Pontiac took for their newest muscle car... I looked up Ferrari GTO and then I said, one day I will get a Ferrari. 43 years later I finally bought a Ferrari 308 qv.. see you around...

 

Good point on Enzo. I still think he had a passion for his company and his cars beyond racing. In reading various biographies, he appeared to keep a simple modest life, working around the clock and putting his money back into the company. His priority was racing but I got the impression that he took the street car seriously after some time. Started off with a disdain for the street car which was basically to fund raise for the racing part and later warmed up to the street cars a bit from what I gather. You may be right though. I still can't help but think he would appreciate the passion on these forums.

Cheers
Dave